Favourable market conditions in the energy sector helped Federated Co-operatives Limited earn a record, nearly $1.1 billion in earnings from nearly $10.7 billion in sales in 2018.

CEO, Scott Banda says they spend a lot of their time at their refinery to improve their processes, safety and management and the CEO adds the refinery’s operating margins are what really did well last year in terms of contributing to the record year.

In 2018, FCL returned $789 million dollars to 170 local co-operative associations.

Banda says their entire earnings will remain in western Canada and that over the past 10 years, FCL has shared $4.7 billion of its profits with local Co-ops.

When asked if the strike in Saskatoon has impacted the Co-op brand throughout western Canada, Banda said he doesn’t know the exact impact, although he did say they’re committed to supporting all their Co-ops across the prairies and British Columbia.

The CEO says in 10 years, he expects Co-op’s presence in western Canada will continue to grow and that they’ll remain in communities where other businesses have decided to leave.